Jérôme FrenettePh.D.

Professor Jérôme Frenette is a researcher with a background in physical therapy and post-graduate training in muscle physiology and immunology at the University of California in Los-Angeles. He is a full-time researcher at the Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec-Laval University, and full professor in the department of rehabilitation at Laval University’s School of Medicine. He has been the principal investigator on several CIHR and NSERC grants. Many of his publications, and one CIHR grant were recognized and rewarded as being among the best in the field of muscle physiology. He started his career as a researcher by investigating the roles played by blood cells and mechanical loading in models of tendon injury and muscle atrophy/regrowth. In 2005, he expanded his research program to include the Buruli Ulcer, which is caused by mycobacterium ulcerans, a neglected disease of wet tropical zones, that is closely related to tuberculosis and leprosy. His research group was the first to show that mycobacterium ulcerans and its toxin, mycolactone, extend well beyond the skin, and severely affect underlying skeletal muscles. Today, the focus of his research program is to understand the link between osteoporosis and muscle atrophy/disease through one common pathway i.e. the RANK/RANKL/OPG pathway. In collaboration with Duchenne muscular dystrophy foundations in Canada, the United States and Australia, as well as sustainable financial support from public and private sources, his team is developing new drugs that would potentially alleviate, in tandem, osteoporosis and muscle degeneration in Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients or other forms of bone and muscle diseases.